Mary’s what and where but no why

There was keen anticipation in the Victorian Parliament yesterday to hear a speech from the Minister for Community Services,
Mary Wooldridge
.

She, of course, played a starring role as the government – for the first time in 30 years – lost a vote in the lower house last week.

Wooldridge did not make it to the chamber to vote and the government lost by a margin of one.

This sparked fevered speculation about the reason for her absence. Was she saving kittens from a burning building? Filming a lobby group commercial perhaps?

One ministerial colleague quietly suggested to us the only valid reason to miss a vote was to be dead. That one, too, has now been firmly put to rest, at least in the literal sense.

At the time of the vote, when she should have been in the chamber where the rest of the caucus was gathered, Wooldridge told a breathless chamber she was . . . drumroll please . . . meeting with her department. Oh my . . .